I have what may be a brilliant idea, and thus, I have mesh requests. Anyone interested?

[hat_plays_sims]

OHGOD okay I have a sudden request list and it's all age conversions and/or sexyfeet and/or pregmorph additions.

I mean, mostly because I think I just figured out how to totally streamline my clothing to-do list AND unify the look of my game and bring you Medieval clothing that layers effortlessly from the scantest of scanties to big wintry fur coats.

1. Sexyfeet and Shoe Swaps
A. Kalynn's CU Simple Shift, found here. (Tapping at the Window or Past Eight O'Clock.) Silvain provides!
B.Heget's Perfect Tunics (straight sleeve, both lengths) with FantasyRogue's poulaines for TM-AM (I thought I had them. Turns out I do not)

2. Age Conversions
A. TO CF: Cynnix's edit of Needlecream's edit of a Liana dress, found here. Cynnix provides!
B. TO CM: Cynnix's edit of Ophelia's cross-less edit of Aligeth's Friar Tuck with FantasyRogue's Poulaines, found here. Cynnix provides!
C. TO CF: Beryllium's Frig Dress, found here. Cynnix provides!
C. To CM: Heget's Perfect Tunics with long and short fitted-sleeve tunics (steal the sleeves from these girls' gowns!) with poulaines, and a short, basic-sleeved tunic (01/02) with poulaines.

3. Morphs
A. Pregmorph: Bloom's Bigger Rounder Pregnant Belly TF True Nude, found here. (It explodes. Pls halp!)* Turns out it was my default version, not Bloom's original. But Cynnix provides!
B. Pregmorph: Skell's Happy Holidays Euro Santa Robe, AM (TM if you want), found here.
C. Cocomama's TF Plantsim Conversion, found here.* Cynnix provides!
D. Tiggerypum's AM Alpha Tunic, found here. (TM at mesher's discretion; other shapes need morphs but this post is about Maxis shapes) Cynnix provides!

4. Combinations and/or Other
A. Cocomama's Wide Fur Coat Long (find Dicreasy's AF pregmorph here) is something I very much want for winterwear, but I need:
i. TF Conversion with Pregmorph Dicreasy provides!
ii. CF Conversion Cynnix provides!

B. K8 of Parsimonious's Fairy Witch Gown is an awesome fantasy style, but I feel it needs:*
i. AF Pregmorph Cynnix provides, at that link!
ii. TF Conversion with Pregmorph Cynnix provides again! Same link.
iii. AF & TF conversions made into Apartment Life witch defaults Morganna provides, but still at the same link!
iv. CF Conversion Cynnix provides!

D. The Sims 2 Store Castle Set Knight could use a gender conversion (just fix the necks; under that much padding everyone looks the same); I'm not dying for it but it would make the heraldry sets nice and symmetrical. Cynnix provides an AF conversion AND an AM pregmorph, PLUS Androgyny versions!

* = I have no new texture plans for this mesh but desperately want it edited anyway.

HERE IS MY GOAL:

LAYERS. Thanks, Heget, for that idea. I want to be able to make my Sims' underwear chausses match their casual chausses. I want all the colors and styles to coordinate. I want underwear that fits under the casual clothes, and I want everybody to have at least three different options (before even looking at color) for every clothing category, regardless of age or gender. My list of partially-completed things to do looks like this at the moment:

Diapers, smocks, and smocks with coifs for infants
Diapers, smocks, and shifts for toddlers
Braises, braises with chausses, shirts, shirts with chausses, and long smocks for CM-EM
Braises with simple breast wraps, braises with German breast bagges, short smocks, short smocks with hosen and garters, and long shifts for CF-EF

At least three, maybe five everyday outfits for infants
At least three, maybe five everyday outfits for toddlers

Top-only tunics for CM-EM
Bottom-only chausses with poulaines for CM-EM (same as I've already done, only in all 82 colors I use)
At least three, maybe five full-body cross-class outfits, CM-EM

Top-only shifts with contrast placket for CF-EF (Silvain is on this, meshwise)
Bottom-only kirtles with wide lacings for CF-EF (again, Silvain is on it)
At least three, maybe five full-body cross-class outfits, CF-EF

Cocomama's Fur Coat as outerwear for CF-EF
Skell's Euro Santa Robes as outerwear for CM-EM
At least two Gym-exclusive outfits for CM-EM
At least two Gym-exclusive outfits for CF-EF

and...
Heraldic plate for YA-EM, maille with surcote for TM-EM, and maille with tabard, formal surcote, and servant's livery for CM-EM
Heraldic plate for YA-EF, maille with tabard for TF-EF, and sideless surcote and servant's livery for CF-EF
Better-Researched Viking Hangeroks for CF-EF, with accessory treasure necklaces

And then I'm still trying to give swimwear some thought. In the Middle Ages, swimwear was either 'underwear,' 'skinny-dipping,' or 'what you were wearing when you fell in the water.' And while I don't object to that, I also can't ever remember which category is 'swimwear' on the friggin' Clothing Tool, so I feel like I ought to add SOMETHING visually distinctive, really.

Heraldic sets will come in the seven colors that were legal heradrly in the High Middle Ages (red, yellow, green, blue, purple, black, and white), with and without devices, underclothes without hose will be in sixteen eight linen colors, underclothes WITH hose in at least 82 (I may do some parti-colored hose, I have ideas), and all regular Casual-Maternity-Formal-Gym-Outerwear outfits will come in about 82 colors. Anything I can texture-reference will be texture-referenced (and I want your opinion: I want to do very modest nursing slits on some TF-EF shifts and smocks. Would you rather I do versions with and without the slits or could you care less?) to save space, and I'll be pulling my no-bust-shading trick again so that if-or-when conversions to other body shapes happen, I can just texture-reference away with no worries.

I think I really need to separate the Medieval Pregmorph List from my wishlist, though. There are a lot of meshes on it I don't really use, or would love to get rid of, but it's still a useful reference for what meshes made without pregmorphs got them, and which ones still need them.

Comments

Re: Oh, look, you posted (heget here)

[hat_plays_sims]

Man, my sleep schedule is BROKEN but I swear my brain just went 'awwwww yiss.'

So, no! No, I do not have those yet. I have the first version, without morphs. I'll look forward to getting the expanded set!

Anyway, the reason I want the version (long or short) with the regular sleeves is so my menfolk can have gym clothes-- something in maille, probably on Tig's alpha tunic, and a nice quilted gambeson on probably one of the short gathered-sleeve Perfect Tunics for the higher-class and/or soldier types, and then for the non-war-like guys and/or peasants who are just involved in sweaty work, a shirt with hose and shoes. (I'll be damned if I can think of a third thing for ladies' gym clothes. So far my brain says 'Io dress with flats, loose kirtle' and 'Io dress with sexy feet, loose kirtle with the skirt rucked up over the smock,' and both of those mental images are cheerfully nicked from Tres Riches Heures, just like the guys in hose and shirts and shoes tilling the fields.)

And I've gotten a start on textures today! Got my textures for mens' chausses all recolored and shiny, and my base for ladies' hose is almost done-- got my rolled top (wishing I could bump-map a thicker roll) and my garters. I'm all excited about hose and garters right now because Silvain's separates will let me tie stocking-and-garter colors to the shift-and-placket top, so they can contrast nicely with the kirtle bottom if I remember to put some nice shoes with a pretty alpha on there.

When I'm tired, I ramble.

Re: Oh, look, you posted (heget here)

[(Anonymous)]

First thing I do when get home to computer- send you the meshes and my recoloring template ( a few of the folds needed to be fixed, hence delay)

I've gotten very attached to my smocked shift textures - I have them with long sleeves on the amaryl meshes with the baggy waist, 3/4 sleeves on the Sumer dress w/ the empire waist- and I decided the short sleeve version can go on the mesh you used for your shifts.

That one reference site on the Burgundian gowns is a godsend- and browsing around it showed some nice pictures of short men's braises that I really like the look of a lot more than the AAS texture or the bulky Aligeth? Mesh.

But yes! x10000 to more chausses and bottom/top only.


I will say thanks to that site I too am confused on plackets versus breast bands versus another layer of sleeveless kirtle. A simple placard in the front actually seems least likely to me- probably because it makes me think of the stomacher pieces of rococo wear. But as I am using mid-medieval, Italian Renaissance, and Tudor fantasy - and these are different cultures and races with different tech and isolated development- I think I should get away with more than one possible method of construction.




I grew dissatisfied with the original sleeves of the tunic because of how it overshot the wrists- but your point about chain maile I think mollifies me. I still need 'awesome boot' option and a fourth idea for sleeves... Cynnix has been working on accessory shoes- which let's face it would have been the sound answer to all this madness.

Augh. At least another hour til I can get out.

Re: Oh, look, you posted (heget here)

[hat_plays_sims]

What dress is this with the empire waist?

And I'm glad to hear I'm not the only person who thinks Aligeth's braises are too bulky. I know the AAS ones leave something to be desired, but I like how they look on a blockfoot speedo mesh... which is usually at least easy to beg for.

Chausses everywhere, because I'm re-doing my old sets in all 82 colors. *sobs gently* I'm looking forward to doing the top-and-bottom dresses, because they'll let me give this look without sticking people with my contrast color choices. (There will be plain shifts, and then there will be plain shifts with plackets on, and I'm trying to think about how to do half sleeves without just begging for an accessory to make it look right.

Wait, which site is this? Because there is a lot of argument about breast bands. We've got the Lengberg Castle finds now, which suggests actual bras (although I REALLY want to see the breast-bag styles on a dummy or something; as it stands they look kind of like a halter top). Matilda La Zouche seems to go the pinned-on stomacher route with her Burgundian gown, but I suspect a supportive kirtle like her blue underdress here could hold an ample bosom securely in place and still provide the same look. Different women may well have done it different ways.

I kind of like the loose sleeves on the original tunic-- I wish I could find more meshes in general with loose, straight sleeves. As far as Awesome Boots go, variations on the theme of short ankle boots with pointed-ish toes seem to have been very popular-- they're in a lot of artwork-- but they haven't turned up on any meshes yet. (Instead we get Aligeth's Robin Hood shoe, which isn't bad, but it isn't good, either.) I almost think if you did soled hosen (just good pointy toes and a bump map) on your shorter tunics, the ankle boots could be painted on convincingly enough (convincingly enough to get extra mileage out of a soled-hosen mesh, anyway, which a short but not Romeo short tunic is perfect for). For REALLY awesome boots that would probably require a little meshing, knee boots for hunting or thigh-high boots for riding are pretty darned awesome, and use the same basic shape of the ankle boot and the body of the poulaine.

Accessory shoes are a good idea in theory, but I don't know if I'm so keen on it in practice-- you have to have blockfoot versions of ALL your meshes for them to work, and you have to have custom CAS icons to see what you're adding to your Sim, and for folk who don't have Bon Voyage or prefer accessories to jewelry, there's the whole issue of the shoes showing up on outfits where they wouldn't be particularly appropriate, so you're always going to the mirror to change your Sim in and out of them. I'd be more inclined to try the trick I heard about where you can supposedly use SimPE to categorize separates as formal or outerwear; from what I hear, as long as you keep them binned as casual, too, they work just fine in other categories.

Re: Oh, look, you posted (heget here)

[heget]

Oh, there's enough of those issues that make accessory shoes not the way to go- but this idea of tht hunics (both lengths, all the sleeves) as tops to pair with bottoms- I'm upset that I don't yet have.


Here's were my head started spinning with "layers or not layers? And layers of what?" : http://cadieux.mediumaevum.com/burgundian-placket.html

Can't seem to find the links with the braises- but I remember looking at paintings of St. Sebastian and the folds and design of the braise actually looked in shape more like the speedos than AAS's. And yes- nice medieval halter top bras. ^^

My vice is elaborate boots- good thing I don't have the money to buy more than the 6 boots (one of which I've had since high school) that I own. But I alway drew characters with ridiculous fantasy boots and my love of Calavier styles is directly for the fancy boots with spilling lace cuffs.


I did originally make the tunic w/ the soled hose feet- but switched it to basic maxis as the first mesh.

Okay- gonna upload the WIP and various zips for things for you.

Update: zips at my journal.

Re: Oh, look, you posted (heget here)

[hat_plays_sims]

I hear shoe swaps are easy, at least? You know, for folk who can mesh. Not so much for me.

I found some boys' braises that are pretty cute, and definitely high-cut. Then there are these, which are based on the Lengberg Castle finds. (I don't think those could hold up chausses, though-- I think they're meant for joined hosen.) There are some older depictions of braises here, maybe that'll help? Some of the bulk vs tailoring seems to be related to age.

I shall hie myself hence to your journal!

Re: Oh, look, you posted (heget here)

[heget]

The sleeve swaps are harder, actually. It's making the mesh packages themselves that I find tedious -and morphs and age conversions are uck.

Re: Oh, look, you posted (heget here)

[hat_plays_sims]

See, this is why I'm putting off learning to mesh, really. (Just watch, in a year or so I'll give in and download milkshape and it'll somehow end up second nature since I work with fabric, and then I'll feel stupid.)

Oh, and I think I found your braises!

Re: Oh, look, you posted (heget here)

[heget]

That's that stupid page! I knew it was also at that site.

One of my issues with the 18th century stuff was I knew how it was created for lots of it, so I kept wanting to build it that way instead of how you would milkshape meshes and a paint document that fitxs the UV Map - and then I'd hit the vast empty patches of my knowledge....


I'm a 2-D artist, actually, so all this meshing I do make I'm surprised at myself. And suddenly all the frekkin' effort and focus on the sigils becomes self-evident. (Those things, weirdly enough, are my stress-relief).

Re: Oh, look, you posted (heget here)

[hat_plays_sims]

See, I think of the UV map as the pattern, and the texture as the fabric I'm trying to cut to make that pattern look the way I want it. It works fairly well for most things (and my shiny new version of Photoshop lets you preview your textures on the mesh which is great because otherwise I would NOT be making as many baby clothes, let me tell you internets). Since I usually work in small scale-- dollhouse dolls, two to six inches tall, with occasional forays into sixteen-inch fashion dolls-- I am SO USED to having to futz with historical or even 'proper' sewing techniques in order to make things fit, drape, or keep in scale. Sims stuff is REALLY similar, even if it is frustrating taking ages to do things that would take me a couple hours in reality.

I've drawn, and I can usually make sketches to help me draft patterns, but I have ALWAYS had more luck with 3D than 2D.

Re: Oh, look, you posted (heget here)

[heget]

My full extent of doll clothes making experience was cut up socks and napkings drapped around my Barbies. No sewing, even.

But lawrdy, the number of paper dolls I have made over the years, from magizine cut outs to re-bought sets to at least a hundred different dolls with all their outifts, accesories, houses, and a full stable worth of horses (with their own additions) ever since I was four or so....

If I wasn't doing Sims, I'd be making far too elaborate flash dress-up games, trufax.

Re: Oh, look, you posted (heget here)

[hat_plays_sims]

I taught myself to sew when I was thirteen because I FINALLY got a dollhouse but it turned out everyone who made dollhouse dolls either sold naked kits or sold dolls with their clothes sewn or glued on. I grew up on Barbie, and frankly? Sewn-on clothes were not what I wanted. So, that was twenty years ago, and now I can do things like this. Okay, I didn't make the jeans, but nobody should have to make jeans ever.

Since I'm not much of a pen-and-paper artist, paper dolls were usually beyond me... although I did have a big 'set' that my grandmother cut out of catalogs for me. Also known as, how to make clothing catalogs interesting to a four-to-six year old.

Re: Oh, look, you posted (heget here)

[heget]

lol, we had the same Grandma.

Oh, I'm passionate about paper dolls. and I rarely made tabs for mine. But oh, I'd take the laminate yourself document business kits and use them on my drawings so that when I cut the dolls out I wouldn't have to worry about tears or creases and I would make fancy envelopes to hold all the pieces...

Re: Oh, look, you posted (heget here)

[hat_plays_sims]

I think most of mine lived in-- you know how they sold books of paper dolls? Nana stapled the two short sides together, and everything lived in there. Of course, they lived at Nana's house, too, so there was always something to play with when we visited. I had a fancy set of Victorian ones when I got a little older-- I think second bustle period but I won't swear to anything besides 'bustle' at this point.